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Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed '''The Dockers''' and known informally as "Freo", is one of 16 teams in the Australian Football League . It was the second team from Western Australia to be admitted to the Australian Football League after the West Coast Eagles . The club is based in the port city of Fremantle , south west of Perth at the mouth of the Swan River . The club is coached by , vice captain Josh Carr , Jeff Farmer , and Paul Hasleby . HISTORY The first and South Fremantle . However it was not represented in a national club competition until 1995 , eight years after the foundation of rival Western Australia n football team, the West Coast Eagles . The AFL announced on December 14 1993 that a new team would enter the league in 1995 and be based in Fremantle. The names "Fremantle Football Club", "Fremantle Dockers" and club colours were announced on July 12 1994. Their first training session was held on October 31 1994 at Fremantle Oval . Not long after the team was launched, Levi Strauss & Co. , which produces Dockers brand clothing, challenged the club's right to use the name "Fremantle Dockers". As a result, the club and AFL discontinued use of the "Dockers" nickname in 1997. However, the team is still known unofficially as "The Dockers", both inside and outside the club, including in their official team song Freo Way To Go . The team endured some tough years near the bottom of the premiership ladder, until they finished fifth after the home-and-away rounds in 2003 and made the finals for the first time. The elimination final against eighth placed Essendon at Subiaco Oval was then the club's biggest ever game, but ended in disappointment for the home team, with the finals experience of Essendon proving far too good. They then missed making the finals in the following two seasons, finishing both years with 11 wins, 11 loses and only 1 game outside the top 8. After an average first half to the 2006 season, Fremantle finished the year with a club record 9 straight wins to earn themselves 3rd position at the end of the Home & Away season, a club record 15 wins in a year and a double chance for their September finals campaign. In the qualifying final against Adelaide at AAMI Stadium , the Dockers lead for the first three quarters before being overrun by the Crows. The following week ( September 15 ) saw the club win its first ever finals game in the semi-final against Melbourne at Subiaco Oval. The club subsequently earned a trip to Sydney to play in its first ever preliminary-final the following Friday night ( September 22 ) at Telstra Stadium against the Sydney Swans , where they lost by 35 points. Fremantle is the only currently active club the AFL that has not won a premiership, following Port Adelaide 's win in 2004 . The club is also the only team never to have played in a Drawn match, despite a Controversial Round 5 Match against St Kilda at Aurora Stadium in Launceston, Tasmania in 2006 . The Saints trailed by a point when the final siren sounded, but the field umpires failed to hear the siren. St Kilda then scored a behind, levelling the scores, before the siren was sounded a second time. Immediate protests from Fremantle players and officials failed to have any effect, causing controversy throughout Australian rules circles. However, the AFL overturned the result the following Wednesday — the first time this had occurred since 1900 — and awarded the win and four premiership points to Fremantle. The Western Derby See Also: Western Derby Fremantle's biggest rivalry is with the other Western Australian team, the West Coast Eagles, who they play twice each year in the Home And Away Season , in fiercely contested " Western Derby " matches (Derby is Pronounced in Western Australia). West Coast were victorious in the first nine games, before Fremantle won in round 16, 1999. Since 2000, however, it has become more even, with Fremantle winning 6 of the 14 games and in 2006 the Dockers won both derbies in a season for the first time. These games are reminiscent of the ''Fremantle Derby'' games between East and South Fremantle in the WAFL . A Fremantle Derby Grand Final in 1979 holds the WAFL and Subiaco Oval attendance record of 52,781. Australian rules football attendance records THE CLUB ]]Fremantle Football Club has its training and administration facilities at Fremantle Oval . The club encourages fans to attend Monday night training sessions, when players remain on the field after training to meet their supporters and sign autographs. The team's home games are played at Subiaco Oval . Between 1995 and 2000 they also played home games at the WACA Ground . 2007 squad See also Fremantle Football Club Drafting And Trading History for the complete list of Fremantle's draft selections, delistings and trades Leadership Club awards The Doig Medal is the Fremantle Football Club's annual Fairest And Best award. Currently, after each of the 22 home and away matches, the Fremantle coaching staff rate each player from 0-7 (with 7 being the best). At the end of the year the votes are tallied and the Doig Medal Night is held to announce the winner. Variations on the voting system have been used in past years. The awards ceremony has been held at the Fremantle Passenger Terminal (1995), Challenge Stadium (1998-1999), Fremantle Oval (2000-2001), the Grand Ballroom at Burswood Entertainment Complex (2002-2005) and the Perth Convention Exhibition Centre (2006). The Beacon Award is presented to the club’s best new talent. To be eligible, a player must be under the age of 21 years on or before 31 December of the previous year and have played less than 10 games at the start of the season (matching the AFL Rising Star criteria). Club guernsey The Fremantle Football Club uses the anchor symbol as the basis for all of their Guernseys or jumpers (unlike other sporting codes it is rarely called a jersey, shirt or kit). The home jumper is purple, with a white anchor on the front separating the chest area into two panels, which are coloured red and green to represent the traditional maritime port and starboard colours. The current alternative or clash guernsey is all white with a purple anchor. One game each year is designated as the ''Purple Haze'' game, where an all-purple jumper with a white anchor is worn. This game is used to raise money for the Starlight Foundation . Since 2003, the AFL has marketed one round each year as the ''Heritage Round''. Until 2006 Fremantle wore a white guernsey with 3 red chevrons, to emulate the jumper worn by the original Fremantle Football Club in 1885. However in 2007, the selected round had Fremantle playing Sydney, who also wear red and white. An alternative blue and white striped design was used, based on the jumper worn by the East Fremantle Football Club in their 1979 WAFL Grand Final win over the South Fremantle Football Club . This ''Fremantle Derby'' still holds the record for the highest attendance at an football game of any code in Western Australia, with 52,781 attending at Subiaco Oval {Link without Title} .
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